This Long Pursuit

Reflections of a Romantic Biographer

By: Sir Richard Holmes

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

In this chronicle of his lifelong obsession with recreating the lives of writers and scientists, Richard Holmes here casts a new eye not only on the Romantic poets and lost women of Romantic science he has long studied, but on their biographers, as well.

He examines the evolution of the myths that have overshadowed certain lives (Percy Shelley's death at sea, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-fueled lectures), and reveals how the manner in which each generation tells the stories of the lives that came before it shapes and is shaped by a contemporary understanding of human nature.

These portraits are deftly woven with Holmes' own experience as a biographer. A spellbinding examination of the nature of biographical knowledge, brimming with the infectious curiosity of Holmes' catalog.

©2017 Richard Holmes (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Holmes Rediscovered

I didn't realize that this wonderful book was written by the same guy who had written an old favorite of mine until I was well into this newer one. The world of biographies is such a rich wonderland from the pen of such a master- Sir Richard Holmes. He brings 19th century British women and men of science and literature to life as never before; likewise their previous biographers. Years back I read and loved "The Age of Wonder", so when I heard him claim it early in the book, I knew I was in for a first-class audio experience. I'd give it 6 stars if I could.